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About BMNJohn

Basically what I've written so far in this thread, and confirms my experience: don't expect any growth spurt for any player. I'd be actually extremely surprised if someone could report about a player having a growth spurt at all!

I recall (but don't quote me on that) that regens in FM follow a model that suggest most men have essentially finished their growth at around age 16, which is apparently a realistic figure. It also happens that 16 is in general (but not always) the age around which players are generated at in FM, more or less. What I've seen in FM does suggest that.

That was something that was very aggravating to me. Despite making it to the CL group stages consistently, neither Maribor or Olimpija in my custom version of Slovenia (20 teams in the main league instead of 10) never spend their money. They're the two most reputable teams in the country and supposed titles challengers... Well that never happens because my club's bench is still better than their main squads, but regardless of that, they never seem to take action towards that goal. They're pretty happy with sitting on that cash. Look at those finances. Don't be lured because Maribor has lost money this season, they just spent 9.5M€ on an extremely average Ukrainian player, and as you may know, players for certain countries are more expensive than others.
In other words, there's a gap with the supposed level of ambition a club has and what they actually do to achieve them, which is next to nothing. I suppose it'd be fair to say that Maribor's buying of Lopes is surprising as he really has good potential... except he's just another full back that goes fast, can't cross, barely can dribble, cannot move off the ball properly, can't pass... well, just another defensive players with no technique (aside from Marking and Tackling) and average mentals that FM seems so fond of. The only team I'm not too comfortable playing is Man Utd to the point that when I was in a position where I could draw to get them out of the Champions' League group stage last year, I did.

Also, the Eredivisie is set to end on May 20th 2001, but the relegation playoffs start on May 14th. For what is worth, the Jupiler ends on May 11th. It doesn't cause problems in FM however: the game just schedules the playoffs after all leagues are over and still completes them in time. For example, at the end of the 2016/17 season, while the playoffs quarterfinals are supposed to start on May 8th witht he second leg on May 12th, they simply start on May 17th, three days after the Eredivisie league ends. Also, the last match day rule doesn't work at least in the Jupiler league. I tried various things, but I don't know how to fix that.

That's Reputation for you. It's the most valuable asset to possess in FM, even over money. Reputation dictates most of the players and staff choices. I do find Reputation has too much of an influence as too many players will be happy to rot in a higher Reputation team without considering their game time... and inevitably turn Unhappy 6 months in when they don't play. Notably because the AI isn't exactly good at rotating and Man Management overall, but also because they keep doubling positions they don't realistically have a need for. I'm talking about having three GKs in the first team or three STs in a system where you only have one striker up front. Meanwhile, as players we tend not to triple systemically every position (and sometimes not even double them), as well just take the Reserves/U19s players when needed. The AI doesn't take in account the basic tactical principles we base our tactics on either, notably things like "Combinations and Duty Pairs", and you can end up with tactics that simply don't exploit the best out of their players. The picture is a Champions' League final against Bayern. Figures why it didn't work all that well for them. The irony is that my squad features tactical choices I wouldn't be making anymore either.
More recently in FM17, I had things like Leonardo Jardim (now at Atletico de Madrid) playing Griezmann as a CM in a 4-2-3-1 as an AP(S) paired with a BWM(S) or something like that. Not too hard to exploit their midfield even without paying any attention.
On the tactical side of things, FM's AI isn't too good at replicating fairly complex concepts either. As such, Guardiola and Bielsa, in my experience, don't do too well in general. Meanwhile, Mourinho's much more simple direct football coupled with Man Utd's financial power easily dominates the world. That he doesn't consistently p!ss off his players also helps.
Also, as pointed out by Guido on an article at Strikerless.com, players the AI should be retaining or sign as soon as they get released get ignored. I think reputation also has an influence on transfers targets, as the rep of these players is too low for the AI to notice that they'd be valuable assets to their teams or at least worth a punt.
https://strikerless.com/2017/08/12/the-cuckoo-transfer-market-strategy-let-others-develop-the-talents-for-you/
That's also something the AI has an issue with: signing the Nicklas Bendtners, Balotellis or Ben Arfas of the world because they have high potential even if any player who takes a look at their attributes an reports know you shouldn't be signing them EVER.

Oh yeah, I found what was preventing teams from going on holidays. Season periods state that the season ends in July; there's no point in having a season period at all so you can just delete it. The second thing that could cause an issue is the Reserves rules under Netherlands->Reserves Rules category. The dates are problematic: the "Reserves Custom xml" has the league end on June 30th, and the regional divisions on June 1st. Both of which do not match with the main leagues as they almost all finish in early May or a little bit later for the teams in playoffs.

I recall that it is a bug present in FM16 as well. It was acknowledged by the devs, but it simply hasn't been corrected ever since. I can't remember the thread but you can look it up.
Painfully true unfortunately, especially and specifically when they have the ball.

You can already ask your board to negotiate for you, especially if your budget is tight. You can already declare a player as your top transfer target. You can already see on a scout report if a player will help with marketing revenue. And obviously, the realistic transfers checkbox already exists.

Well the thing is that Reputation is perhaps to me the most important factor when it comes to FM; at least, moreso than money (even if it obviously helps). As pointed out before, if you do well but your Rep doesn't catch up, some players will straight away refuse to sign for you. I also wouldn't say that building a good AI is hard; I'd say more accurately that building a somewhat realistic A.I. that doesn't seem (emphasis on "seem") to always have an unfair advantage over the player is tough. FM struggles with that somewhat: the game looks pretty intimidating for newer players while veterans know what to look for and what to search for. Which is why more savvy players can bully the A.I. into submission with equivalent players and give it a fair fight even with somewhat inferior players. I suppose S.I. doesn't want to drive away newcomers even if veterans will obviously not consistently find a challenge.

It's a matter of taste, but I would've gone with offensive wingbacks instead of Defensive Wingers that I don't find pro-active at all, like CWB(S) or WB(A), or even CWB(A). I would've had as two Defend duties for the CMs: DLP(D) and CM(D) because of the number of players up front especially since Trequartistas do not defend at all; but then I rarely play with two CMs. Considering In general, FM defenders tend to have poor awareness to whatever happens at the far post especially on counters, so you're bound to get goals in at the far post very often even with players with 20 Anticipation and Positioning. Well, more accurately, they seem to get hypnotized or sucked in by dribbling opponents quite often instead of paying more attention to the other passing options.

Like prize money for a competition, those value will vary as the country/competition moves up or down the ladder. However they will rarely (exception made of Gibraltar) reach or beat values of higher leagues. For example, if you took Serbia for example to the top of the world, sure the player value and prize money will change, but it won't reach as high as England.

Queen's Park Football Club will always stay an amateur club, but isn't prevented from being promoted to the top echelon. FC Vaduz cannot play in the Champions' League. Other than that, B clubs, Amateur sections of bigger club (like Ajax) and similar can't be promoted any higher than the main club. The obvious issue is that you're very dependant of the AI, AI which is very happy to let rot any decent player they have in the first team instead of letting you play them regularly. So it's not worth it at all unless you're very masochistic. Well, it's decent enough to get a gripe of what FM is like before very, very quickly moving on.